The National Coalition for the Homeless announced Tuesday that Gainesville is among the top ten meanest cities for homeless people, citing among other things criminalization of the homeless through enforcement of laws that make aspects of living outside an arrestable offense.

The National Homeless Coalition is a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that lobbies and advocates for homeless issues across the nation.

The list is included in the coalition’s annual report Homes Not Handcuffs that highlights laws in America that criminalize homelessness.

For the past three years the city of Gainesville and Alachua County have attempted to find a location for a publicly funded one-stop homeless center that would provide job training, showers, minor medical care and many other services for the destitute.

Both political and logistical roadblocks have stalled the project; however, the city and county donate thousands annually to local homeless shelters.

Those efforts apparently didn’t outweigh the Gainesville laws that regulate how and where the homeless may be housed and fed.

Gainesville made the same list in 2004.

Read the full report here to learn why the coalition put Gainesville in the top 10.

The coalition is holding a media conference at noon. Check Gainesville.com for an update and tomorrow’s newspaper.

About This Blog

County Lines and City Limits follows Gainesville and Alachua County politics and government from City Hall to the statehouse.

Morgan Watkins, a University of Florida grad, joined the Sun in August 2012 as its county government reporter. She keeps you updated on what’s happening inside county meetings and outside in local neighborhoods. If you think something might make a good story, let her know at morgan.watkins@gvillesun.com.